'A dry run for a future plan?' #MH370

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Story highlights

What was up with pilot's call, and were batteries aboard the plane dangerous?

Australian officials have said the objects could be from Flight 370

Two weeks after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, finding it remains a global search-and-rescue effort. The bulk of the attention is on the southern Indian Ocean, where a commercial satellite photographed objects that Australian authorities say could be related to the search.

Authorities have called the find the best lead yet on where the missing plane might be, and it has prompted a massive search in the area more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) southwest of Australia. So far, they have turned up nothing.

What's the very latest?

Australian officials say six planes were continuing the search Saturday after nothing was found in the area Friday.

Britain's The Telegraph published what it said was part of a transcript of the final communications between the Malaysia Airlines flight cockpit and air traffic controllers. It shows only routine technical chatter. CNN has not independently verified that the transcript is genuine.

The CEO of Malaysia Airlines confirmed that the plane was carrying lithium-ion batteries. And authorities said they're aware of a news report that the plane's pilot placed a cell phone call shortly before the flight departed.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Photos:The search for MH370

Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, a relative of one of the passengers burns incense in Beijing on March 8, 2016. Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were 239 people on board.

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Photos:The search for MH370

On July 29, police carry a piece of debris on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. A week later, authorities confirmed that the debris was from the missing flight.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Staff members with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau examine a piece of aircraft debris at their laboratory in Canberra, Australia, on July 20. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had said it was highly likely to have come from Flight 370. Experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, confirmed that the part was indeed from the missing aircraft.

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Photos:The search for MH370

In late February, American tourist Blaine Gibson found a piece of plane debris off Mozambique, a discovery that renewed hope of solving the mystery of the missing flight. The piece measured 35 inches by 22 inches. A U.S. official said it was likely the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, which MH370 was.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Relatives of the flight's passengers console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on February 12, 2015. Protesters had demanded that the airline withdraw the statement that all 239 people aboard the plane were dead.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A police officer watches a couple cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The couple's son was on the plane.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27, 2014. Data from communications between satellites and the missing flight was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers said they requested it be made public.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

The HMS Echo, a vessel with the British Roya; Navy, moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris in the southern Indian Ocean on April 7, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 7, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

On March 30, 2014, a woman in Kuala Lumpur prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370.

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The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, 2014, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions.

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A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27, 2014.

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Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27, 2014.

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People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27, 2014.

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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24, 2014. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived."

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Photos:The search for MH370

Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014.

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A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, 2014, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It was a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes were looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, 2014, showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could have been from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight.

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A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19, 2014.

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On March 18, 2014, a relative of a missing passenger tells reporters in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet.

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Photos:The search for MH370

U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations in the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13, 2014. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, search efforts expanded west into the Indian Ocean.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13, 2014.

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Malaysian air force members look for debris near Kuala Lumpur on March 13, 2014.

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Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12, 2014.

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A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported on March 8, 2014. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10, 2014.

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Photos:The search for MH370

A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews on March 9, 2014, before returning to search for the missing plane in the Gulf of Thailand.

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Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9, 2014.

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Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9, 2014.

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The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9, 2014.

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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014.

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A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014.

Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya, front, speaks during a news conference at a hotel in Sepang on March 8, 2014. "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts" with the jet, he said.

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There may not be any, but in a mystery as big as this one, investigators will check out any lead to see if it's important.

And what about the batteries?

Lithium-ion batteries are the type commonly used in laptops and cell phones, and have been known to explode, although it is a rare occurrence.

A fire attributed to lithium-ion batteries caused the fatal 2010 crash of a UPS cargo plane in Dubai. Lithium-ion batteries used to power components in Boeing 787 aircraft were also implicated in a series of fires affecting that plane.

So, in theory, a cargo of the batteries could have caused a fire that led Flight 370 to crash.

"They are not declared dangerous goods," he said, adding that they were "some small batteries, not big batteries."

It's been two days since we saw the satellite photos of floating objects. Why haven't searchers found anything?

The area being searched is enormous and remote. Aircraft can stay over the scene just two hours before having to return to base. And given that the objects spotted on satellite could have drifted hundreds of miles since they were photographed Sunday, or maybe have even sunk by now, finding them isn't a simple proposition.

Japan is sending surveillance planes, more merchant ships are on the way, and Australia, Britain, China and Malaysia are all sending ships to the area -- a remote region far from commercial shipping and air lanes.

Is it possible that the plane would have gone that far?

Investigators think so. They concluded the plane flew for hours after disappearing from radar, and calculated a pair of arcs running north and south from the Malay Peninsula for likely locations. Based on those trajectories, the amount of fuel on board and other factors, experts believe the plane could have made it to the southern Indian Ocean.

When will we know whether the objects are from the missing flight?

Maybe never. Searchers might miss them, or they might have sunk by now.

But even if they do find the objects, the process of determining whether they're from the missing flight could still be lengthy.

"We have to locate it, confirm that it belongs to the aircraft, recover it and then bring it a long way back to Australia, so that could take some time," said John Young, general manager of emergency response for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority,

The Indian Ocean search area

Could pieces of the plane still be floating?

Probably not any big pieces, according to Steve Wallace, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's former director of accident investigation. But pieces of lightweight debris, such as life jackets and seat cushions, can float for days after an aircraft strikes the water, he said.

If it's not the plane, what else could it be?

Almost anything big and buoyant. The objects were spotted in a part of the Indian Ocean known for swirling currents called gyres that can trap all sorts of floating debris. Among the leading contenders for what the objects might be, assuming they're not part of Flight 370: shipping containers that fell off a passing cargo vessel. There are reasons to doubt that theory, however. The area isn't near commercial shipping lanes, and the larger object, at an estimated 79 feet (24 meters), would seem to be nearly twice as long as a standard shipping container.

If it is the plane, would its location tell us anything about what happened on that flight?

If it really is the wreckage of the Boeing 777-200, its far southern location would provide investigators with precious clues into what terrible events unfolded to result in the disappearance and loss of the airliner, according to Robert Goyer, editor-in-chief of Flying magazine and a commercial jet-rated pilot. "The location would suggest a few very important parameters. The spot where searchers have found hoped-for clues is, based on the location information provided by the Australian government, nearly 4,000 miles from where the airliner made its unexpected and as yet unexplained turn to the west," Goyer wrote. The first obvious clue is that the airplane flew for many hours.

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Two indistinct objects, one about 79 feet (24 meters) in length and the other about 16 feet (5 meters) long. Though they don't look like much to the untrained observer, Australian intelligence imagery experts who looked at the pictures saw enough to pass them along to the maritime safety agency, Young said. "Those who are expert indicate they are credible sightings. And the indication to me is of objects that are reasonable size and are probably awash with water, bobbing up and down out of the surface," he said.

How old are the images?

They were taken by commercial satellite imaging company DigitalGlobe on Sunday.

Why did we first hear about them on Thursday, then?

Basically, the Australians say, it's because the Indian Ocean is a very big place. The maritime safety authority said it took four days for the images to reach it "due to the volume of imagery being searched and the detailed process of analysis that followed."

Who is running the search?

The Australians are in charge of the search in their area of responsibility, which includes a large area of the southern Indian Ocean off Australia's west coast. Malaysia remains in overall control of the search.

How did they know to look in this area?

Investigators analyzing satellite pings sent by the plane concluded it was traveling along one of two arcs away from the Malay Peninsula. U.S. officials have said they believe the plane most likely traveled south and crashed into the Indian Ocean.

Searchers narrowed the area of interest by calculating the most likely locations based on time in the air, fuel usage and other factors.

It's already been 14 days. Are we running out of time to find this plane?

The locator beacons attached to flight data recorders are designed to ping for at least 30 days, but will probably keep going at full strength up to five days longer, said Anish Patel, president of Dukane Seacom Inc., the Florida company that believes it made Flight 370's beacons.

"Our predictive models and lab tests show 33-35 days of output before we drop below the minimal values," Patel told CNN. "Depending on the age of the battery, it could continue pinging for a few days longer."

Pinging is one thing. Finding the pings is another.

Not only is the area being searched vast, it is deep -- up to 13,000 feet in many places. Given that the pingers can be detected from no more than about two miles away, they could be hard to hear if they're on the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean.

Layers of different water temperatures could also make it tough to pick up the sound of the beacons, experts say.